GOP congressman caught saying armed kids 'might actually make us safer'

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) looked straight at the camera to say arming young students in schools could be a good idea. This may come as no surprise to some, as Rohrabacher’s extreme positions on guns has consistently earned him an “A” from the NRA.

The OC Register reports that Rohrabacher “unwittingly appeared on the premiere episode of a Showtime political satire and seemed to endorse the idea of arming school children as young as 4,” referring to his appearance in Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who Is America?”

Cohen, posing as the character Col. Erran Morad, an Israeli gun fanatic, proposed a ludicrous idea of training children as young as 4 years old to use weapons in case of a school shooting. And several current and former Republican lawmakers seemed to embrace the idea.

According to the Washington Post, Cohen’s character “offers a ‘solution’ to America’s epidemic of school shootings. Called ‘Kinderguardians,’ the fake program would put guns in the hands of children 3 and older.”

In the episode, Rohrabacher stared straight on and said, “Maybe having many young people trained and understand how to defend themselves and their school might actually make us safer here.”

After the episode aired, Rohrabacher’s office released a statement admitting he was duped into appearing on the show. “Satire must reveal some basis in truth,” Rohrabacher said.

He is correct that “satire must reveal some basis in truth.” In this case, it shows Rohrabacher’s extreme positions on guns are wildly out of touch with Americans in general, and his district in particular.

Most Americans support reasonable gun control measures, yet Rohrabacher has consistently sided with the extremists like the NRA, and against the will of Americans.

Rohrabacher’s positions are wildly out of touch with the voters in his Orange County district: 71 percent say “the government does not do enough to regulate access to guns,” according to a Chapman University poll.

The satire also show’s Rohrabacher’s “gullibility,” according to Harley Rouda, the Democrat running against Rohrabacher this year.

“His gullibility, lack of due diligence, and weakness is exactly why Vladimir Putin adopted him decades ago,” said Rouda.

Rouda is referring to Rohrabacher’s suspiciously close ties to Russia, so close that he is often referred to as “Putin’s favorite congressman.” Fellow California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield once claimed Rohrabacher was on Putin’s payroll. The only other person McCarthy thought Putin paid off was Trump.

Rohrabacher called U.S. intelligence agencies “liars,” while defending Russia and clinging to wild, debunked conspiracy theories to defend Russian against all evidence of their interference in the 2016 election.

More recently, Rohrabacher has been linked to Maria Butina, a Russian woman who was recently arrested for “trying to cultivate relationships with American politicians to establish ‘back channel’ lines of communication and seeking to infiltrate U.S. political groups … to advance Russia’s agenda,” according to the Washington Post.

Either Rohrabacher really believes in giving guns to children, or he is gullible enough to appear on camera seeming to support such a position. Neither option paints Rohrabacher in a good light.